DRIVER SWERVES TO MISS TODDLER CRAWLING ON A1A

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Darryl and Kathie Feinman almost ran over a toddler crawling across busy State Road A1A early Sunday.

"I thought it was a box or a dead dog. It's not too often you see something crawling in the street," said Darryl Feinman, 34.

The Pompano Beach couple, who were married on Friday, were heading south on A1A shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday, police said. They were going to breakfast in their Geo Metro when Darryl Feinman noticed something in the middle of A1A, several blocks north of Sunrise Boulevard.

The car swerved to miss it.

The Feinmans stopped and were shocked to see a crawling child.

"We all jumped out of the car in amazement and just left all the doors open," Darryl Feinman said. "We thought, 'Oh my God, a baby."'

The Feinmans then tried to warm the uninjured baby boy by wrapping him in towels and a jacket.

"It was freezing. He had nothing on but a diaper," said Darryl Feinman.

They tried to ask bystanders to call police but it took some time before they could get another vehicle to stop. Police and rescue workers finally arrived about 20 minutes later.

While rescue workers checked the child, his mother walked to the scene.

Stephanie Socha, 23, of Fort Lauderdale, said she was housesitting a few blocks away, said Police Patrolman Larry Lohsen. She told police she fell asleep and her son somehow got out the door, Lohsen said.

"The mother said she didn't hear the child get up," Lohsen said.

Police said the child showed no signs of abuse, but they are investigating possible child neglect. Police would not release the name of the boy, who was returned to his mother.